Battlefield 3 (commonly abbreviated BF3) is a first-person shooter video game developed by EA Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts. It is a direct sequel to 2005's Battlefield 2, and the twelfth installment in the Battlefield franchise.

The game was released in North America on 25 October 2011 and in Europe on 28 October 2011 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360.[4] EA Mobile also confirmed a port for the iOS platform. The game sold 5 million copies in its first week of release,[5] and received critical acclaim from most game reviewers. It is the first game in the series that does not support versions of Windows prior to Windows Vista as the game only supports DirectX 10 and 11.[6] The PC version is exclusive to EA's Origin platform,[7] through which PC users also authenticate when connecting to the game.

In campaign mode, players take on the personas of several military roles; a Force Recon Marine, an F-18 weapons system officer, an M1A2 Abrams tank operator, and a GRU operative. The campaign takes place at various locations, from Iran to New York, and follows the story of Sergeant Blackburn and later, Dimitri Mayakovsky.

Battlefield 3 features the combined arms battles that made the series popular across single-player, co-operative and multiplayer modes. It reintroduces several elements absent from the Bad Company games, including fighter jets, the prone position and 64-player battles on PC.[8][9] To accommodate the lower player count on consoles, the ground area is limited for Xbox 360 and PS3, though fly space remains the same.[10]
During an interview with Game Informer, EA stated that Commander Mode is unlikely to be included,[11] which was met with some criticism on the EA forum.[12] The game features maps set in Paris, Tehran (as well as other locations in Iran), Sulaymaniyah, New York, Kuwait, Wake Island, Oman and the Persian Gulf. The maps cover urban streets, metropolitan downtown areas, and open landscapes suited to vehicle combat.[13] Battlefield 3 introduces the "Battlelog"; a free cross-platform social service with built-in text messaging, voice communications, game statistics, and the ability to join games that friends are already playing (though both players need to be on the same platform).[14]

Campaign

The game's campaign takes place in the year 2014. The missions are flashbacks that are part of the interrogation of Staff Sergeant Blackburn and do not occur in order of events. Chronologically, the initial sections of the campaign are set near the Iraq-Iran border, where the US Marine Corps are fighting the People's Liberation and Resistance (PLR).[15] The game later moves into northern Iran, continuing the fight against the PLR. There is a mission set in the streets of Paris, and another set in the sewers and subways of New York.

Cooperative

A demo featuring the new co-op mode was featured at Gamescom 2011. DICE GM Karl Magnus Troedsson confirmed that a split screen option will not be available in co-op mode.[17] Battlefield 3's new Battlelog social network, DICE noted, would be tied to all co-op matches, allowing players to try to beat friends' scores and to track their performance.[18] It has also been confirmed that participating in co-op mode allows the player to collect points that unlock additional content that can be used in multiplayer.

Plot

Set in 2014,[27] Sgt. Blackburn leads a five-man squad on a mission to find and safely return a US squad investigating a possible IED in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, whose last known position was a market controlled by a hostile militia called the PLR. However an earthquake destroys the city during the firefight with the PLR. Blackburn escapes the ruins with Montes and other survivors. Several weeks later, the US sends Marines into Iran. Naval aviator and F-18 pilot Lt. Hawkins engages fighters over Iran and takes part in an air strike against Mehrabad Airport. In the aftermath of the air strikes, Blackburn and his squad are sent to Tehran to perform battle damage assessment and apprehend the leader of the PLR, Al-Bashir. While investigating an underground vault in the target's suspected location, Blackburn and his team learn that the PLR acquired Russian portable nuclear devices, and that two of the three devices are missing. Being overrun, and requesting back-up, an M1 Abrams convoy led by Sergeant Miller is deployed to extract Blackburn's team. Miller facilitates Blackburn's helicopter extraction, but is captured when waiting for a Quick Reaction Force. Miller is promptly executed by Solomon and Al-Bashir, with the event being filmed.

Later, Blackburn and his squad manage to capture Al-Bashir, who realizes Solomon betrayed him and reveals his plot to detonate the nukes in Paris and New York, before dying from the wounds he sustained in his capture. Blackburn's team also gets a lead on an arms dealer, Kaffarov, who was working with Solomon; however, while pursuing Kaffarov, the Americans encounter a large Russian force, who are also attempting to apprehend Kaffarov and are hostile towards the Americans. Almost all of Blackburn's squad is killed, while a Spetsnaz team led by Dima assaults Kaffarov's villa. Dima successfully interrogates Kaffarov, and reveals Solomon's plot to Blackburn.

Blackburn arrives at the villa and finds Dima and an unconscious Kaffarov. Dima tells Blackburn about the threat and asks for his cooperation to prevent a war between their nations. Meanwhile Blackburn's commanding officer arrives and Blackburn is forced to shoot his superior. Due to this, Blackburn is captured and interrogated by agents within the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and explains all of his previous operations to them in flashbacks. During Blackburn's capture, Dima attempts to stop the attack in Paris, but he is unsuccessful and his team is wounded in the resulting detonation. The CIA agents do not believe Blackburn's story, since Solomon is a CIA informant and since there is no concrete proof of his involvement in the terrorist attacks. They instead believe that Russia is responsible for the attacks and that Dima had played Blackburn.

Left with no other option, Blackburn and surviving squad member Montes break out of captivity to stop the attack in New York. Montes is shot in the process but Blackburn manages to kill Solomon and recover the bomb.

In the epilogue, having been diagnosed with radiation poisoning, Dima writes about the efforts of both him and Blackburn to stop Solomon's plot and prepares to shoot himself. However, a knock on his door prompts him to stop.

Battlefield 3 Update 4-RazorDOX

Scene group RazorDOX (DOX division of Razor1911) released Update 4 of Battlefield 3 for PC.